Egyptian Synopsis:

Egyptian art can be divided into the Early Dynastic period (3150-2700 BCE),
the Old Kingdom (2700-2190 BCE), the Middle Kingdom (2040-1674 BCE) and the
New Kingdom (1552-1069 BCE). The Palette of Narmer, from the Early Dynastic
period, illustrates the use of hieratic scale, where important figures are larger
than lesser figures. The palette also portrays the merger of Upper and Lower
Kingdoms which unified Egypt. The artist used the traditional Egyptian
figure pose of head, hips, legs and feet in profile and eyes, shoulders and
torso in frontal view. The mastaba was an early Old Kingdom form of
the pyramid, used for funerary purposes. This later developed into the stepped
pyramid and finally the true pyramid most commonly associated with Egypt. The
necropolis was a group of any of these funerary structures. Old Kingdom sculpture,
while rendered naturally, remains rigid, rectilinear and blocklike. Figures,
such as Khafre and Menkaure and his wife Khamerernebty, still appear attached
to the block of stone. The Middle Kingdom led to the development of the grid
pattern of city planning. Art from this time came mainly from tombs, such as
Ti Watching a Hippopotamus Hunt, a wall painting, and the Pectoral of Senworset
II, exectued in gold with semiprecious stones. The New
Kingdom brought economic and political prosperity and introduced the term "pharaoh"
meaning "great house." Temples from this period increased in complexity,
such as the Funerary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, including colonnades and hypostyle
halls. The Temple of Amun, Karnak, included a hypostyle hall with lotus flower
and lotus bud capitals. Ramses II later added the pylon and peristyle court.
Leaders, such as Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, were immortalized in funerary
art. Art from the New Kingdom no longer idealized figures but treated them more
naturalistically. Akhenaten is shown as he was in old age, not as a young leader.
New Kingdom funerary art is perhaps best known by the sarcophagus of King Tutenkhamun,
made of solid gold and decorated with enamelwork and semiprecious stones. -
(source: http://www2.students.sbc.edu/hill00/seniorseminar/summary2b.html
)

~ Great Pyramids at Giza
* leveled 13-acre site west side of Nile
* 2,300,000 2-1/2 ton limestone blocks quarried with copper and stone cutting
tools brought across Nile from quarries
* built during 25-yr. timespans
* pyramids sited on north-south axis

DJB In-Depth Notes

~ ...the Egyptians built dams to divert flood waters into fields instead of
attempting to control the flow of the river; the communal effort put forth to
construct these dams provided the basis for the growth of an Egyptian civilization,
just as the irrigation projects in the Mesopotamian valley had furnished the
civilizing impetus for that region a few centuries earlier. (G9-74)~...Like
a set of primordial commandments, the Palette of Narmer sets forth
the basic laws that would govern art along the Nile for thousands of years...The
king is seen in a perspective that combines the profile views of the head, legs,
and arms with the front view of eye and shoulders. Althought the proportions
of the figure would change, the method of its representation becomes a standard
for all later Egyptian art. (G9-77)